This is such a silly idea, that I can't even see an appropriate board to place it on. I, recently, wrote about an adaptation of a Dashiell Hammett story; saying that Dash would be the fairy on my Christmas Tree of Culture- my favourite creator in any form. The Pixies and The Smiths would be on the next level down. So once I'd had the idea, it was like an itch I couldn't scratch, until of course I wrote out a list of my 30 favourites in any art form.
Faintly insane, trying to compare across art forms, so the order shows how much effect these cultural entities have on my worldview, what I enjoy, and what generates the most enthusiasm inside this human unit.
Observations; No painters, nor composers, nor sculptors; my cultural blindspots exposed for all to see. Ah well.
1. Dashiell Hammett
2. Pixies
3. The Smiths
4. Alfred Hitchcock
5. William Shakespeare
6. Elmore Leonard
7. Stanley Kubrick
8. The Beatles
9. James Ellroy
10. Larry Niven
11. Alan Moore
12. The Rolling Stones
13. Sidney Lumet
14. John D MacDonald
15. Iain M Banks
16. David Bowie
17. Prince
18. Akira Kurosawa
19. The Buzzcocks
20. Francois Truffaut
21. The Clash
22. James Crumley
23. The Archers
24. Frank Miller
25. The Coen Brothers
26. Richard Condon
27. Anton Chekov
28. JP Melville
29. Sly and the Family Stone
30. Billy Wilder
Itch scratched.